We had an absolute blast together!!! Though it’s been months since we were last together, we started in chattering & laughingthe very moment we saw each other again!

“Is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of a sister?” Alice Walker

Her “Seldom Seen Ranch” is so green and lush during the Spring–tall pines and huge oaks and big meadows full of wildflowers! AND then there is the pure joyof her tribe of goats–with oodles of new “kids” to giggle over!Kim is such an amazing person and sooo inspiring in a million ways! She raises Angora and Pygora goatsfor their fleece which she hand dyes with the flowers and herbs that she grows in her amazing gardens! It’s a huge undertaking and a daily practice of love!

Kim and her husband are up at the crack of dawn to feed and water and tend the ranch…They are dedicated to their “back to the land” life in a very rural setting, at the end of a long dirt road that clings to the side of a mountain, in a beautiful valley that borders the San Joaquin River.

Shearing to carding, spinning to dyeing, Kim commits herself to every step necessary create her beautiful yarns (Go to her website and buy some this instant!!!!)and weaving them into amazing works of art. I’m so impressed and awed by her vision for her cottage industry

–“Let Our Circle of Love Keep You Warm“–is her motto and she lives it beautifully every day!We had such fun during my visit! We had a scrumptious lunch with her daughter Gretchen at her beautiful home one day…We played at the river with her son Jed and his children Kiva & Esha on a lovely Saturday picnic… and wandered around the amazing Yosemite with her daughter Michelle (and her boyfriend Jason) and shared another fabulous picnic on Sunday!Mostly, we talked and laughed and cried and shared stories of our lives!

There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me.-Mary Montagu

We went kayaking…and, in her light-filled studio, sewed some new curtains for the cutest little trailer Kim fixed up as my guest suite–we named it the Butterfly Bungalowbecause she filled two water-troughs with blooming flowers outside the door for me! I slept so soundly and so full of dreams! Her meals were incredible feasts of simple handmade food and her thoughtfulness made every moment such pure pleasure!

“To have a loving relationship with a sister is not simply to have a buddy or a confident —it is to have a soulmate for life.” Victoria Secunda

One morning I got up early to surprise her by starting a little mural outside her fiber shed. This is the “before” with my chalk drawings on the wall and my “after” with the painting started. My hope is that everyone who comes to visit will add flowers to the mural!

I adore my little sister Kim…I am in awe of her hard work, her dedication, her dreams, and her creativity. I feel so blessed to have her (and her family!) in my life!

“A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.” -Isadora James

(P. S. I’m already secretly planning to build a little shack out back to live in one day!)

Please remember to cherish the people you love in your life, find ways to spend more time with them, don’t let all the hectic, busy days of your life keep you apart!

Stay in touch–call, write, visit!! Life is too short–capture the joy!

Be inspired by two sisters who lost track of each other for a quarter of a century and the then found each other again and will never, ever, ever be separated again!!!!!

“Bless you, my darling, and remember you are always in the heart- oh tucked so close there is no chance of escape- of your sister.”-Katherine Mansfield